26 February 2012

Bacon butty power...

Two weeks on from my last update and the weather, the season and the mileage has moved on, swiftly.

The snow has gone, the temperature has rocketed up to the dizzy heights of around 17°c during the past week, spring flowers are in bloom and my cycling mileage has benefited as a result. The week of Feb 13 - 19 saw me cover a total of just over 132 miles, a huge leap from the meagre 25 miles I managed in the snow and ice of the previous week. During the past seven days, I’ve upped the pace a little more and clocked up a further 160 miles.

As a result of these two weeks of better weather my mileage for the year now stands at 770 miles, a rather pleasing 102 miles more than I rode in the same period last year. If I’m to hit my target of 6,000 miles before the end of the year I’m going to have to start and rack up some much higher totals over the coming months but, at this point, I’m feeling reasonably confident that it may just be attainable.

Although I’m going to be focusing on my yearly mileage target this year, I’ll be making sure that the way I go about reaching it will be as enjoyable as possible too. So, today's 50 mile ride around South Derbyshire included a stop at Alvaston Lake, to see the birds there, a quick photo stop for spring crocuses and, the best bit, a delicious bacon sandwich an hour into the ride! I burnt around 2,400 calories during this morning's ride.... so a bacon sandwich is just like putting a couple of gallons of fuel in the tank of your car! That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking by it!

Having just seen the weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon (rain) I think I’ll be riding the short route home from work and treating it as a “rest day”.